I have read a number of these Very Short Introductions, including recently on Islam and Judaism, and all are very informative and interesting. Although I didn't really need to be introduced to Jesus, I like Richard Bauckham's stuff so thought I'd give it a go. If you've read much Bauckham, or NT Wright for that matter, it's not really anything new - Bauckham says that much of the info in here is expanded in his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses - but it is great to have lots of his thoughts on the historical Jesus gathered together in a concise form like this.
And there are some real gems in this book. His stuff on Jesus' often indirect style of teaching is fascinating, and he is brilliant on Jesus' attitude to social status: 'Jesus thus took the unparalleled step of abolishing social status, not by giving all the disciples the status of master... but by reducing all to the lowest social status: that of slave'.
Also recommended are his thoughts on the gospels as eyewitness accounts (Ch 2), and chapter 3 which is all about the 1st Century context Jesus found himself in.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in Jesus!
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Concrete Faith by Matt Wilson
This is the story of the Eden Network. It is a story I have been a part of since the early days, so I was keen to see how Matt Wilson's book matched up with my experience over the last 13 years and more. Matt tells the story well, in a punchy and honest way, mixing theology and missiology with powerful stories which enhance the developing narrative of a project becoming a network and then looking to become a movement.
For those who don't know, Eden was originally a project that involved 25+ youth workers from around the country moving into Benchill in Wythenshawe in the late 1990s, to live and work alongside the young people there. It quickly spread to Langworthy in Salford, then Openshaw, Longsight and a number of other estates, and most recently has become a national movement. Matt Wilson knows the story well as he was a part of the original project and has overseen the development of Eden nationally.
It is an exciting and challenging read, and Matt has captured well the paradoxes and tensions of incarnational urban mission Eden-style. Most encouragingly for me, he doesn't gloss over the many difficulties involved, especially the stories of 'what went wrong' in some of the early projects. These are important stories to hold alongside the many wonderful stories of individual and community-wide transformation.
I would encourage anyone who has an interest in transformation in the inner cities to read this book. It is not full of hype and just containing the impressive stories, but is real, and genuinely hopeful, a useful record of 15 years of God at work in Greater Manchester and beyond. I hope it will inspire many people to move into inner city estates and do similar things, as well as being an encouragement to those of us already involved in this stuff.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular World by Randall J. Stephens and Karl W. Giberson
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a book telling the stories of several well-known Christian leaders, which openly criticises them and the way their teachings are accepted by millions of followers, especially in America. However, I did find it very helpful and compelling, whilst not always agreeing with the authors in some of their conclusions, and at times I felt like they unfairly caricatured some of their subjects.
The heart of the book is clear: what is it that makes millions of evangelical Christians follow the teachings of men like Ken Ham (young-earth Creationist), Tim Lahaye (prophecy guru and Left Behind author) and David Barton (fundamentalist revisionist American historian), many of whom have little or no qualifications in their specific areas, whilst ignoring the work of other evangelicals who are highly qualified and universally respected in their particular fields? (such as Francis Collins, NT Wright and Mark Noll respectively)
This is actually a question I have found myself asking many times when watching some of the more extreme fundamentalist programmes on Christian TV, and trying to stop myself from throwing something at the television in despair and occasionally anger! So I'm glad someone has had the courage to write about it, whether or not I agree about their particular examples.
The book is very America-focussed, but it is still interesting and relevant to Brits like me, especially having been brought up in a conservative evangelical background, and at times feeling like it's 'us against the world', clinging on to the safety of the teaching of a small number of charismatic, confident preachers who assure us that they are simply reading the Bible as it is, not interpreting it like those terrible liberals. The title of the book, The Anointed, is based on the idea that the fundamentalist evangelicals in America are 'deeply rooted in some good old-fashioned American anti-intellectualism', and choose to trust those they believe God has anointed, rather than those who have expertise in particular subjects. There is a deep mistrust in the experts and a great trust in the popular preachers who talk about common sense, reading the Bible literally and uniting together against the evil secular world: God's 'anointed' leaders are the ones we can trust. This is an interesting claim and I have certainly seen anti-intellectualism at work sometimes in the evangelical church, although not to the extent described in the book (except on Christian TV).
The leaders who have achieved so much success and are critiqued in this book are all experts at tapping into the desire for common sense, plain speaking, bible-based life teaching. Unfortunately they have helped to create an isolationist culture where anyone who steps outside the boundaries (young earth, 6 literal days of creation, premillennial eschatology, America as a Christian nation, unquestioning support for modern-day Israel) is seen to be selling out to secular humanism and therefore is not to be trusted. In this point I think the authors have a good point.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a mostly balanced and measured critique of the fundamentalist evangelical culture. It did annoy me at times, but it is an important subject for discussion, and I hope it will lead to discussion rather than being ignored or rejected by those within the fundamentalist stable of evangelicalism.
The heart of the book is clear: what is it that makes millions of evangelical Christians follow the teachings of men like Ken Ham (young-earth Creationist), Tim Lahaye (prophecy guru and Left Behind author) and David Barton (fundamentalist revisionist American historian), many of whom have little or no qualifications in their specific areas, whilst ignoring the work of other evangelicals who are highly qualified and universally respected in their particular fields? (such as Francis Collins, NT Wright and Mark Noll respectively)
This is actually a question I have found myself asking many times when watching some of the more extreme fundamentalist programmes on Christian TV, and trying to stop myself from throwing something at the television in despair and occasionally anger! So I'm glad someone has had the courage to write about it, whether or not I agree about their particular examples.
The book is very America-focussed, but it is still interesting and relevant to Brits like me, especially having been brought up in a conservative evangelical background, and at times feeling like it's 'us against the world', clinging on to the safety of the teaching of a small number of charismatic, confident preachers who assure us that they are simply reading the Bible as it is, not interpreting it like those terrible liberals. The title of the book, The Anointed, is based on the idea that the fundamentalist evangelicals in America are 'deeply rooted in some good old-fashioned American anti-intellectualism', and choose to trust those they believe God has anointed, rather than those who have expertise in particular subjects. There is a deep mistrust in the experts and a great trust in the popular preachers who talk about common sense, reading the Bible literally and uniting together against the evil secular world: God's 'anointed' leaders are the ones we can trust. This is an interesting claim and I have certainly seen anti-intellectualism at work sometimes in the evangelical church, although not to the extent described in the book (except on Christian TV).
The leaders who have achieved so much success and are critiqued in this book are all experts at tapping into the desire for common sense, plain speaking, bible-based life teaching. Unfortunately they have helped to create an isolationist culture where anyone who steps outside the boundaries (young earth, 6 literal days of creation, premillennial eschatology, America as a Christian nation, unquestioning support for modern-day Israel) is seen to be selling out to secular humanism and therefore is not to be trusted. In this point I think the authors have a good point.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a mostly balanced and measured critique of the fundamentalist evangelical culture. It did annoy me at times, but it is an important subject for discussion, and I hope it will lead to discussion rather than being ignored or rejected by those within the fundamentalist stable of evangelicalism.
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
The Teaching Of The Twelve by Tony Jones
This book is subtitled: 'believing and practising the primitive Christianity of the ancient Didache community'. The Didache (DID-ah-kay, meaning 'teaching') was possibly written around the same time as the synoptic gospels, and the short document contains a fascinating insight into the practices of a very early group of Christians. The book includes the whole text of the Didache, as well as some historical background to the document, commentary and some modern day application illustrated by a group called the Cymbrogi who are trying to live out the teachings of the Didache, which is very similar in parts to the Sermon on the Mount.
The Didache contains four sections, in Jones' words: Training in the way of life (preparing converts for baptism); The Rhythms of community life (guidance on eating, fasting, baptising, praying and Eucharist); Visitors welcome (how to treat visiting preachers); The end is nigh (the apocalyptic bit!). If you're into early church history and practice, this is just great stuff, fascinating to compare it to the biblical writings and to imagine how this group lived and thought, perhaps never having seen any of Paul's letters or John's gospel, just working out how to follow Jesus in a world containing people who had seen him and touched him!
Well worth a read.
The Didache contains four sections, in Jones' words: Training in the way of life (preparing converts for baptism); The Rhythms of community life (guidance on eating, fasting, baptising, praying and Eucharist); Visitors welcome (how to treat visiting preachers); The end is nigh (the apocalyptic bit!). If you're into early church history and practice, this is just great stuff, fascinating to compare it to the biblical writings and to imagine how this group lived and thought, perhaps never having seen any of Paul's letters or John's gospel, just working out how to follow Jesus in a world containing people who had seen him and touched him!
Well worth a read.
The Lost World of Genesis One by John H Walton
I have read many books and commentaries about Genesis 1, as well as reading and studying and teaching on the actual text countless times. This is the most interesting and thought-provoking book I have read on this foundational passage. The author compares the other ancient creation texts with Genesis 1 and does some historical work to try to understand what the original readers would have been thinking when they read it. And his conclusions are fascinating. His basic argument is that the author is describing the enthronement of God in his temple - the cosmos. It's all a little complicated to explain in a short blog, but a series of quotes should give you a flavour of the argument.
'Genesis 1 can now be seen as a creation account focussing on the cosmos as a temple. It is describing the creation of the cosmic temple with all of its functions and with God dwelling in its midst'. 'The most central truth to the creation account is that the world is a place for God's presence'.
'The point is not that the biblical text therefore supports an old earth, but simply that there is no biblical position on the age of the earth'. 'In this view, science cannot offer an unbiblical view of material origins, because there is no biblical view of material origins aside from the very general idea that whatever happened, whenever it happened, and however it happened, God did it'.
All very controversial to some, eye-opening to others, and helpful to many others. Whether you believe the world was created by God 6000 years ago in six 24-hour days, or that it is billions of years old and life evolved from tiny molecules, even if you are an atheist with a passing interest in matters of faith, you should read this book with an open mind.
'Genesis 1 can now be seen as a creation account focussing on the cosmos as a temple. It is describing the creation of the cosmic temple with all of its functions and with God dwelling in its midst'. 'The most central truth to the creation account is that the world is a place for God's presence'.
'The point is not that the biblical text therefore supports an old earth, but simply that there is no biblical position on the age of the earth'. 'In this view, science cannot offer an unbiblical view of material origins, because there is no biblical view of material origins aside from the very general idea that whatever happened, whenever it happened, and however it happened, God did it'.
All very controversial to some, eye-opening to others, and helpful to many others. Whether you believe the world was created by God 6000 years ago in six 24-hour days, or that it is billions of years old and life evolved from tiny molecules, even if you are an atheist with a passing interest in matters of faith, you should read this book with an open mind.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Junia is not Alone by Scot McKnight
This is a short e-book, a long essay really, and a passionate and forceful argument for the equality of women in all aspects of church life. Scot McKnight uses the example of Junia, a woman who the Apostle Paul refers to in Romans 16:7 as 'outstanding among the apostles', but who for many years was referred to as Junias in a number of Bibles, due to the idea that women could not be apostles. She was given a 'sex change'! Indeed, in many Bibles today you will still find Junia referred to by a male name, Junias, who in actual fact 'is a man who didn't exist with a name that didn't exist in the ancient world'.
McKnight uses this basic premise, that Junia was a woman, and an outstanding apostle, and tells stories of other outstanding women in the Bible like Deborah, Huldah and Miriam, and then three powerful stories of women in church history who did extraordinary things but have largely been overlooked because of their gender. He ends with a call for the church to seek out and tell these stories of the great women of the faith. We need some balance to the years of male domination, although as he points out 'if we want real historical balance it would mean telling nothing but women's stories for the next two millenia'.
I would definitely recommend this book. It may be short, but it's worth it. Even if you have read The Blue Parakeet, which contains some similar material in more detail, there are some fresh stories and points here. To end with McKnight's words: Junia was a ‘Christ-experiencing, Christ-representing, church-establishing, probably miracle-working, missionising woman who preached the gospel and taught the church’
McKnight uses this basic premise, that Junia was a woman, and an outstanding apostle, and tells stories of other outstanding women in the Bible like Deborah, Huldah and Miriam, and then three powerful stories of women in church history who did extraordinary things but have largely been overlooked because of their gender. He ends with a call for the church to seek out and tell these stories of the great women of the faith. We need some balance to the years of male domination, although as he points out 'if we want real historical balance it would mean telling nothing but women's stories for the next two millenia'.
I would definitely recommend this book. It may be short, but it's worth it. Even if you have read The Blue Parakeet, which contains some similar material in more detail, there are some fresh stories and points here. To end with McKnight's words: Junia was a ‘Christ-experiencing, Christ-representing, church-establishing, probably miracle-working, missionising woman who preached the gospel and taught the church’
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Renovation of the Church by Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken
This is the story of what happened when two American megachurch pastors discovered the writings of Dallas Willard, Richard Foster and others, and began to change the whole focus of their 1700-strong church community. They realised they had fallen into the trap of creating a consumer church for a consumer world. Instead of calling people to a costly lifestyle of following Jesus no matter the cost, they were attempting (fairly successfully) to grow the greenest grass in town, and were growing rapidly as a result of their dynamic seeker-friendly services, and their talented staff members.
But they sensed something was wrong. They were not producing disciples, they were running an excellent service that met people's felt needs. And they gradually realised that this was not true Christianity. So they began to teach on the need to reject the consumer mentality in the church and the world, and to focus on spiritual formation rather than numerical growth. This is the story of what happened as a result. Most strikingly, around 1000 people left the church in a short period of time. But many who stayed found a new depth to their discipleship.
I enjoyed the book. I especially enjoy reading ideas that you hardly ever see anywhere else, that challenge your whole worldview. Here are some quotes:
(this is in the context of a conversation about why people move easily from one church to another, depending on which one has the best services) 'We simply can't build churches around attracting people through all these religious benefits we offer and then be surprised when they actually take us up on it'
'It is countercultural to consider making decisions on a basis other than how it benefits me'.
(quoting Eugene Peterson) 'The cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, 'deny yourself' congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church.'
(discussing a church who rejoiced when over a thousand people joined from a nearby church) 'how delightfully refreshing it would have been if the pastor of the "receiving church" had stood up one Sunday and preached a sermon on consumerism and invited those thousand people to humbly return to their previous church and meet God there.'
(quoting Mark Galli) 'The more strictly you adhere to the teachings of Jesus, the smaller your church will "grow"'.
All fascinating stuff, but left me with some big questions. I love the teachings of Willard, Foster and Peterson and so I was fascinated to find out what it would look like when a church really goes after spiritual formation as its primary goal. What I was concerned about was what would happen to their passion for mission, expressed through the seeker-sensitive system, and what how would it affect their worship? Helpfully, they write a chapter on each. Not so helpfully for me, these are their main areas of struggle in the new system! There is a genuineness and authenticity in the way they describe their journey, which means you get a 'warts-and-all' account. I was hoping for some clearer answers, but this is a story rather than an instruction manual designed to give easy answers and a 7 step plan.
I would recommend this to anyone looking into these issues as a good contribution to the conversation!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Renovation-Church-Kent-Carlson-Lueken/dp/0830835466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306698410&sr=8-1
But they sensed something was wrong. They were not producing disciples, they were running an excellent service that met people's felt needs. And they gradually realised that this was not true Christianity. So they began to teach on the need to reject the consumer mentality in the church and the world, and to focus on spiritual formation rather than numerical growth. This is the story of what happened as a result. Most strikingly, around 1000 people left the church in a short period of time. But many who stayed found a new depth to their discipleship.
I enjoyed the book. I especially enjoy reading ideas that you hardly ever see anywhere else, that challenge your whole worldview. Here are some quotes:
(this is in the context of a conversation about why people move easily from one church to another, depending on which one has the best services) 'We simply can't build churches around attracting people through all these religious benefits we offer and then be surprised when they actually take us up on it'
'It is countercultural to consider making decisions on a basis other than how it benefits me'.
(quoting Eugene Peterson) 'The cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, 'deny yourself' congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church.'
(discussing a church who rejoiced when over a thousand people joined from a nearby church) 'how delightfully refreshing it would have been if the pastor of the "receiving church" had stood up one Sunday and preached a sermon on consumerism and invited those thousand people to humbly return to their previous church and meet God there.'
(quoting Mark Galli) 'The more strictly you adhere to the teachings of Jesus, the smaller your church will "grow"'.
All fascinating stuff, but left me with some big questions. I love the teachings of Willard, Foster and Peterson and so I was fascinated to find out what it would look like when a church really goes after spiritual formation as its primary goal. What I was concerned about was what would happen to their passion for mission, expressed through the seeker-sensitive system, and what how would it affect their worship? Helpfully, they write a chapter on each. Not so helpfully for me, these are their main areas of struggle in the new system! There is a genuineness and authenticity in the way they describe their journey, which means you get a 'warts-and-all' account. I was hoping for some clearer answers, but this is a story rather than an instruction manual designed to give easy answers and a 7 step plan.
I would recommend this to anyone looking into these issues as a good contribution to the conversation!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Renovation-Church-Kent-Carlson-Lueken/dp/0830835466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306698410&sr=8-1
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